It was a beautiful day in Apoy, and she was holding a horrible, horrible goose. Her initial observation of the newly ascended deity at his lavish ascension party had provided her with many points of vital information. Unfortunately one of those points was the fact that he was blind. This threw a very large wrench into the gears so to speak, as it was very hard to come up with ideas for a gift to give someone if they couldn't see anything. She racked her brain and spent a couple sleepless nights in Antikythera's library when she found…the answer. Following a brief stay in the rebuilt Kinigoh village, she made the trek up to the volcano the locals feared and worshiped so much. Luckily the dragons were out that time of day, so she arrived at the Gate unnoticed. Shiloh was fully disguised and holding a large metal cage covered by a cloth in her arms, not in any state to be fighting or dealing with hungry predators. Shifting her hands as she approached, she slowly pulled the handles open of the ornately engraved doors to enter the pitch blackness studded with flecks of light.

She entered that deep darkness known as the Raiqi Labyrinth, silently walking along. It was an interesting trial; you could weed out undesirable visitors while enforcing an exercise in patience and determination. Though not as emotionally and physically bleak as Via Fulminis, the deprivation of one of the primary senses would be enough to make people think twice about bothering the landlord. Normally she wouldn't be so relaxed about wandering around in a pitch-black maze, but she was feeling unusually confident today. Maybe it was just a hunch, but the rogue didn't think placing hidden death-traps and stalking shadow monsters was his style. Endless frustration of repeating the same thing while hoping for a different result on the other hand…definitely possible. She kept her eyes open anyway, and she noticed the vibrations in the ground with her sense of hearing now heightened. Even if she couldn't see where she was going, there was no need to go barefoot. In fact, she happened to have a convenient echolocation device at her disposal between her fingertips.


Using said goose, she found her way to the exit after in indeterminate amount of time. The walk was almost therapeutic compared to the near-death experiences she had survived during Azhizheth's attack on Revaliir. But soon she found herself squinting her eyes at the sudden increase in light upon arriving at the base of Giliath, the lava being a tad too bright for her liking. If there was one thing she had to say, it was that this new god had good taste when it came to implementing artistic contrast. Grandiose and ostentatious was to be expected. She took a moment to appreciate the steelwork before putting down the honking cage to properly open the doors. Shiloh was again greeted by more darkness, but with additional flaming light sources to reveal a black stone pathway cleverly situated in the middle of the hallway. Taking a sharp inhale at the chill, she rubbed her hands and flexed her fingers before picking up the cage to walk inside. The goose was oddly quiet, but the weight of the cage told her the infernal bird was still contained. This was good, as she needed it to be kept inside as long as possible until she handed it off to its new owner. At the end of the 'walkway of faith' was a large circular room like a nexus with a few doors that led to places unknown. But what commanded her attention was the massive dragon rising from a grand throne, eyes red as blood and a body jet-black, as if there wasn't enough intimidation.

This was her stop. Not waiting to meet the citadel's owner, Shiloh pulled off the cloth covering the cage and affixed a modified Maurelle sphere to the top. "Remember to play the pre-recorded message when the next person enters this room." She said, activating the device. Turning to leave, she slipped out before the device's sensors were triggered and disappeared back down the lava-lined path. Little did Raith know what misfortune would soon befall him once Shiloh waived herself of all legal responsibility upon leaving her 'gift' in his domain…

"HONK!"

A visitor, a Pilgrim, one of his first since the celebration of his Ascension. The Blind God tilted his head to one side slightly, sightless eyes closed as he concentrated on the vibrations, resonating within his Realm, through his very soul. He did not know this being, did not recognise the pattern of their footsteps - but no matter, they were welcome all the same, all were welcome to bask within the glory of his brilliance, after all. 
He followed the progress of his visitor, as he did with all those who ventured into his world. After their encounter with Xyaban, Raith had become somewhat paranoid about keeping his beloved Alairia safe from harm - he could recognise the Dragoness' vibrations with ease, he would never forget the way she moved, that was for certain. Whoever this unknown was, they were progressing rather well through Raiqi, and he had to admit that he was somewhat impressed by the way they were handling his challenge… maybe he would have to add some traps after all, slow down the confident and the clever a little more. 

He made his way down the Watchtowers steps, as the Pilgrim made their way across the hall to his Throne room, he felt them place something on the floor there, the ripples from the impact piqued his interest, especially when said Pilgrim made a somewhat hasty retreat, back the way they came… If that wasn't suspicious, then nothing was. Raith's own gait hastened, and he entered the Throne room, at which point said message blared out at him… along with the offending 'honk'. "What in the name of the Stars…" Raith snarled, raising an eyebrow as he made his way towards the offending noise… moments before the 'gift' escaped its bindings. It took the God a moment to realise what, exactly, had befallen his Temple, until the damnable creature hissed, honked and suddenly sprinted at him, snapping it's beak down on his hand. "Infernal beast!" He snapped, immediately hissing back at the goose… and then realising that his guest was still in the vicinity. 

Snarling at the beast, Raith closed the Gate from where he was, the metal doors slamming shut and 'welding' themselves, so that whoever the gift giver was, could not escape him. "I suggest you come back, and explain yourself. I do not appreciate my guests sneaking in, gifting insane presents, and then running away. Either you come back, and explain, or I will come to you, and trust me when I say that NEITHER of us wants the latter option…" Raith snapped, his voice echoing throughout Orme as he called out to his guest, using a foot to keep the goose at bay. 

Greetings and Salutations our newest member to the Conclave.
If you are hearing this message, then the delivery of the gift has been completed.
Within the confines of this cage is a live specimen of a waterfowl native to the ——- region of Canelux.
Please accept this humble offering for your entertainment pleasure.
This recording will now explain the specific rules of protocol when handling the specimen.
Rule number one: Ensure the cage is securely locked at all times.
Should containment be breached, initiate Emergency Protocol 06 to recapture the specimen…

Unfortunately the recording's instructions were soon drowned out by the fact that despite Shiloh's meticulous preparations–the goose had escaped and was now terrorizing its intended recipient. Raith's quick thinking caused one of the known exits to the realm to be sealed off, containing the goose inside and Shiloh before she could make her exit. A few seconds after she realized the doors wouldn't budge, the newly-ascended projected his voice throughout his domain. There was only one logical explanation as to why she was being addressed so soon… The rogue's eyes went wide as a cold sweat began to break out on the back of her neck. No, not because of Raith being angry–but because the goose had gotten out.  In case you were wondering, that was no ordinary cage. There was no conventional lock by which the goose could open using a pilfered key out of the hands of an unsuspecting passerby. There were no hinges to peck apart, no obvious gaps to fit its snapping bill. But yet it escaped all the same. 

"Good lord… It's all over now." Shiloh muttered in horror as she made her way back to Giliath before the goose found out there was another way to leave the realm. Bursting in Shiloh saw the blind man engaged in mortal combat with the horrible, horrible bird and yelled: "DID THE GOOSE GET OUT?! QUICK, GRAB IT BEFORE IT CHANGES ITS OBJECTIVE!" Geese were persistent creatures but their attention spans would not hold them in one place for long, and indeed the bird began trying to circle around Raith when she took out a Reverie snow globe. She threw it, but as geese are crafty creatures–it dodged with its neck at the last moment. Panic was written all over her face as she immediately started summoning couches to block up the portals in the Throne Room in a desperate attempt to confine the fiendish fowl within the walls of Giliath. "This wasn't supposed to happen–I can explain!" The woman screeched as the goose once again escaped her clutches and was now flying its way to another part of the Observatory. 

Finally catching her breath, Shiloh's voice was wavering with anxiety. "Now before you roast me over the coals with twenty questions, I just wanted to let you know that the cage was definitely locked before I set it down on the ground–and I had nothing to do with its release whatsoever." Continuing to speak quickly, her eyes darted back and forth as she checked that the goose hadn't gotten past the barricades. "–So I meant to give you a wild specimen of a particularly infamous waterfowl known for its tenacity and overwhelming determination. After hearing about your party, I thought it would be the perfect because the moment I saw it I immediately thought of you." Shiloh's attempts at flattery were questionable at best and it was very hard to tell if they were stealth insults or just very poorly-worded compliments. There was no ill-intent in her tone of voice at all, which obfuscated things even further.

"Anyway, we only have a few minutes to put it back into containment before it goes too far and starts breaking or entering into places it shouldn't belong. In layman's terms–the goose is on the loose. In order to stop it's rampaging reign of terror we must embark on a…wild goose chase." The goddess hastily explained to Raith in a completely serious tone and a deadpan expression. Yes, this was a matter of the utmost urgency. There was no telling what misfortune would befall the world once the goose gained access to it, outside of the confines of the Observatory. The portals in the Throne Room might be physically obstructed–for now–but as it had been shown, physical barriers couldn't hold it for long.

The automatic message did little to calm the God's irritations, in fact, it made them a hundred times worse. 

Gifting the God of Wrath with a creature as anger inducing as the goose, was probably not the wisest move to make. Raith had never been gifted with patience, and he had even less now that he had come into his powers… What had possessed his fellow Deity to gift him with this, thing, was quite beyond Raith's contemplation in that moment. It seemed that escape was meant to be unlikely, unfortunately it also appeared that Shiloh had completely underestimated her present and it's ability to escape… had Raith known anything about Earth history, he might have called the bloody thing Houdini, out of respect for the Magician who was famous for being an escape artist… sadly, he knew nothing of the man, and all that came to mind was that if he could get close enough to wring the birds neck, he would bloody roast it. 

"YES IT BLOODY GOT OUT, AND WHY DON'T YOU COME OVER HERE AND GRAB IT?! I RATHER ENJOY MY FINGERS, AND I'LL NEED ALL OF THEM TO WRING YOUR NECK ONCE I'VE THROTTLED THE FUCKING THING!" Raith roared in reply, sightless eyes cast in Shiloh's direction as she returned to Giliath's entrance. Talk about stating the bloody obvious… of all the bloody things… She could explain?! Oh she would explain alright, once they had cornered the ridiculous fucking creature that she had cursed him with. As Shiloh joined him, Raith sighed, tracking the goose with the change in air pressure and the sound of it's wings - thankfully the infernal beast was not silent in it's movement… 

As she spoke, Raith cast a dark glance in her direction, sighing once more. "Wonderful. Thank you ever so much for, what I can only describe as, the most back handed compliment I've have ever received, let alone heard. Apparently I'm a persistent, biting waterfowl?" He snarled… though somewhere in the back of his mind he made a mental note never to tell Alairia this comparison, as he had a horrifying feeling that his lover might agree with this observation… "It fits in with my Domain, I'll give it that at least. It'll make a damn good guard for Raiqi if nothing else," he said through gritted teeth, listening to the bird as it's webbed feet padded along the floor, the goose investigating it's new home.  

Was she serious? By the Stars he wished he could look her in the face and actually see she was joking, but he could hear from her tone that she was being sincere… and somehow that made her words worse. Raising his eyebrows and shaking his head, Raith sighed in exasperation. If this was what the Voice had chosen before him, it was no wonder it had called upon him now… the state of the Gods in this world was… well… dire to say the least. "Right goose, I have a bone to pick with you," he hissed, rolling up his sleeves. "So how do you suggest we tackle this… problem?"

It was time to initiate Protocol 06. After putting on a pair of force gauntlets, she sucked in a long breath of air. She resisted the urge to chuckle when he said he had a 'bone to pick' with the bird, and slapped her face a few times. "Alright, so the good news is it just got out. It doesn't have any knowledge of the lay of the land as I had the cage covered before leaving it inside. Even if it did escape Giliath it wouldn't go very far. Also the front doors are sealed so it won't leave the realm…easily. Direct confrontation is a bust, we need to trap it with a lure. Geese are fiendishly intelligent creatures, so the trap has to be subtle and it definitely can't look suspiciously easy. Luckily, it is a known fact that they love shiny noisemakers. The noisier and shinier the better–but any sort of shiny valuable thing that's highly visible will do." As she was rambling, Shiloh rummaged through her bag's one million things to see if she had anything that fit the description. Unfortunately she found it, but the moment she realized what it was she groaned. There was a golden egg which checked off everything on the list. It was something that held a lot of sentimental value, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

"I have the bait…as much as I wish I could say otherwise. Alright, so I'm going to put this egg in the center of a makeshift puzzle. The key is to make it complicated so the goose is fully occupied with being a feathered felon when we spring it. The first thing it's going to do once it senses something's off is to fly–which I'll take care of. While it's confused, I'll knock it unconscious and I'll throw it inside my snow globe." As for what the other deity could do to assist with the capture, she said: "Oh and you can just…harass the bird however you like as long as you drive it towards the egg. But don't poison it, we don't want to aggravate the bird any more than necessary. It might start acting unpredictably if it's in an altered state of mind. Once it's captured, we have a few options–make a truce with it through a mutual understanding, or assert dominance through punishment or confinement." 

Yes one of the options was to bargain with the fowl. Yes she wasn't kidding about it. The whole idea seemed overly complex just for capturing a chaotic evil bird, but Shiloh was insistent that it was needed. Geese were not simple creatures, and one must never underestimate its capabilities. As a small consolation for the pandemonium her gift had brought, the goddess was handling the bulk of the planning for getting the goose under control. It was the least she could do after this incredibly embarrassing blunder… Maybe she should have just sent him the scented candles.

Silence leant his Master his eyes, both Drake and Master silently exasperated by the Goddess before them. The more Shiloh spoke, the more he despised this ‘present’, making a mental note to put extra security around his Domain where Shiloh was concerned, if the Goddess never darkened his door again it would be too bloody soon. As she rummaged through her bag for a lure, Raith and Silence let out a collective, exhausted sigh. He put out his hand, fingertips touching the egg, placing enough pressure to it to lower Shiloh’s hand.
Raising his left palm skyward, he felt for the Heavens above his domain and summoned a star to his hand. It glittered brightly, shining more brilliantly than the egg because it was pure celestial light. It also uttered a loud, reverberating hum, amplified only by its place on his hand - the minute it touched the black marble floor of his halls it would positively SING. ”Keep your trinket, we will use my own,” he stated simply as he put the star into Shiloh’s hand. 

A small smile crosse the God’s face. ”Right up my alley, leave harassing it to me,” he replied, it would be his retribution for having the bloody thing in his house as it was. Bargain with it… that would be interesting if somewhat ridiculous, but a this point anything was worth a shot to get the infernal thing caged. Nodding to his fellow Deity, Raith stepped towards the goose, his own wings spread to make himself larger and more intimidating. ”Alright you, I’ll make a deal with you. I won’t cage you, you can roam this domain to your hearts content and terrorise as many people as you like. But there will be conditions, do you understand? You will not attack, physically at least, the occupants of the Observatory, you may scare them if you wish, it will keep them wrathful and on their toes. There is one however, that you are forbidden to go near, my beloved Alairia. The minute you go near her in any fashion other than affectionately, you are subject to being BBQed. You must also remain here, going no further than the entrance to Raiqi, feel free to haunt and frighten those Pilgrims who dare to enter the maze, but frighten only, chase and herd, but never bite… unless they reach Giliath then it’s fair game.”

It seemed Shiloh was too preoccupied with 'fixing' the current problem to consider what Raith could contribute towards the haphazard plan, but fortunately she wouldn't have to make that sacrifice, at least not today. The surprising loudness of the miniature star made her instinctively plug her ears with her fingers, which she had to take out since this was a much better shiny prize than anything in her inventory. The plan was running along smoothly, with Raith showing the infernal bird who was the bigger individual despite them both having egos of a similar size. While the other god began the negotiations, Shiloh had hidden into the shadows, slowly creeping up behind the goose when its attention was elsewhere. The goose stared back at the wrathful god with its cold, beady eyes. There was silence from it as it contemplated the offer it was given. On one hand, geese didn't listen to anybody. However it could still be its infuriating self and do what it pleased under certain conditions. A tempting offer, a very reasonable offer. But would it take it? It gave its answer at last with a loud honk that seemed to be agreement. Somewhere within it's avian brain the terms had been viewed as satisfactory, for the time being.

Without wasting any time, Shiloh emerged from a nearest pool of shadow and locked the honker in stasis. Hurling an enchanted snow globe at it, the stasis was released just in time for it to be caught up in the winter wonderland of a prison. A shrill screech faded to silence as the goose reacted to the surprise attack, only to become a small speck running amok inside the tiny toy village encased in glass. "Yes! YES!!! Ahahaha!!!! I can't believe that worked–oh, sweet heaven above! It's finally over!" Shiloh let out an anxious, half-manic laugh now that the plan had succeeded. "Who knows what sort of disasters that would have happened if this plan failed? And with at least two-thirds of a chance too. But it's done, locked up in a way that doesn't hinge on keys and locking mechanisms." Her little nervous wreck now over, she turned back to Raith with an apologetic look. "…Right. Here you are, the goose–as promised. I didn't catch everything from the talk but I think it's safe to say that you've both reached a mutual understanding. Oh and just to let you know–if you ever decide to just cook the thing, I am totally fine with that." There were plenty more geese where it came from, literally. 

After handing the contained goose off to its new owner, she figured she had overstayed her welcome. "I'll see myself out." With a sheepish wave of a hand, Shiloh left Giliath and retraced her steps back through the labyrinth to leave his realm. This was not one of her best deliveries she'd done in all her attempts of surprise gifting.